We've been on a quest to determine which NHL team has the best and worst logos.
Now we're moving onto goalies! We're pitting mask against mask
with the goal of determining the best. And you can vote!
Also check out: Tournament of Hockey Logos

Sunday, October 7, 2007

I wrote up a short post earlier about NHLToL's fantasy hockey team and I just wanted to thank all of you who have been laying the advice on me. Definitely will be making use of it.

Anyway, before I call it a night, thought I'd post this. Got bored and started goofing around. Here's what my teams looks like in visual form.

Rarely do I post my own work here, but I thought this was pretty cool.

You might notice that Paul Mara and Steve Sullivan are not pictured. That's because they will soon no longer be part of my team. I need to upgrade my defense and Sullivan may be out for a very long time. Anyway, that's all. I'm going to bed now. Got a TV show to make in the morning!

Part 14 of 30. All 30 NHL clubs have unveiled new jerseys under the new Rbk EDGE Uniform System for the 2007-08 season. Here at the NHLToL, we're going to review every one of them. Read up and then rate the new sweaters. We'll do a full ranking after completing all of the reviews.

The UnveilingSunday, September 16. The Oilers unveiled their new jerseys to fans at the Joey Moss Cup event in Edmonton.

Home vs. RoadHome: Blue. Road: White. The two sweaters are essentially mirror images of each other.

The blue home jerseys feature copper piping on the front that extends from the collar to the bottom of the jersey. Spaced white-copper-white stripes wrap under the elbow but not completely around the sleeve. The copper stripe has red trim. The collar is copper and the primary logo serves as the crest.

The white road jerseys feature blue piping on the front that extends from the collar to the bottom of the jersey. Spaced blue-copper-blue stripes wrap under the elbow but not completely around the sleeve. The copper stripe has red trim. The collar is blue and the primary logo serves as the crest.

In The DetailsThis uniform is the only one with the unique striping pattern at the elbows. The stripes to do not wrap completely around the arm, rather leaving a large gap on the outside of the elbow. The same numbering and lettering style has been retained.

New & OldThe striping pattern remains primarly the same around the sleeves with the exception being the gap at the elbow. The horizontal striping on the bottom of the sweater is gone as are the shoulder patches. The addition of the piping on the front and the altered collar are the only other differences.

Standard FAQNumbers on the front? No.Laces at the collar? No.

NHLToL Editorial by ChrisUpon first seeing the Oilers' new jerseys, I was stunned. Not in the good way. I've always liked this team's sweaters — the caveat being the WHA years. Even when orange was replaced by copper and red, I still thought the Oil had one of the best jerseys in the NHL. That is so far from the truth now. The biggest problem is obviously the elbow stripes, but the list goes on. Adding to the banality of these sweaters is the the lack of a shoulder patch. Edmonton had one of the best up until last season. These monstrosities, and I do not use the word lightly, do honestly look so plain and unimaginative as to almost warrant being called practice jerseys. They are my least favorite of all. 1/5

One of the ideas I mentioned in the Pipeline is a logo tournament dealing in how center ice is painted in each arena. I think that would be a really cool one, but building graphics will require a lot of research and all the help I can get.

What I'd like is some help finding photos of center ice in every NHL rink. If any of you guys would be willing to help me find pictures, I'd be more than grateful and I'd find some way of making sure you get the credit you deserve.

Yesterday, I put together four graphics based on photos I found. See what you guys think and if it's a competition you'd be interested in, let me know.

The above images show what the ice looks like from directly above. But we could also use graphics that show what the ice looks like from the seats. Just an idea.

If you like this idea and want to help find photos, just keep in mind that the bigger and more detailed they are, the better. That detail will come in handy when figuring out the right fonts and logos to use. Plus, I don't know if you know this, but every rink in the league has a different pattern on the red line and I really want to get it as accurate as possible.

All right, so leave a comment and let me know what you guys are thinking. If nobody is interested, then I'll toss the idea aside and stop building graphics. If you want to move forward, I'll keep at it.

I've been depriving you guys of some great concept art the last couple days. For that, I apologize and I plan to make it up to you. A handful of teams make good use of maps in their branding.

My Lightning are right there among them with the outline of the state of Florida on their shoulder patch. You can see an orange Long Island right in the middle of the Islanders' logo and a green state of Texas sits on the shoulders of the Stars.

I guess the question, what if the Vancouver Canucks followed suit? We recently saw a concept with Alberta on the Oilers' shoulders and Minnesota on the Wild's shoulders, so why not put British Columbia on the Canucks'?

My personal favorite is the one in the middle. The other two don't really do anything for me.

Another slight alteration I'd make is to rotate the province a few degrees to the left so as to make the north and south borders horizontal. It may not be geographically accurate, but we all passed middle school (I'm assuming!) so we can look past that.

Now there was one team I failed to mention above that has a shoulder patch outlining their home state. This next concept reminds me a lot of the Coyotes' Arizona logo.

I like how the stripes start in Vancouver and, as the designer put it, "radiate out to the rest of British Columbia" since the Canucks are "B.C.'s team." If it were me, though, I'd lose the text out of the logo. It would end up being illegible anyway.

So now's your turn to critique these designs. Leave a comment and let us all know what you think.

So here's something you guys probably won't be that interested in. I'm going to talk about it anyway, though.

I was invited to join an online fantasy league this season — something I've never really tried before but always wanted to. The idea was they wanted to get a bunch of hockey bloggers together for this one. Among those in the league are writers from PuckUpdate, Sean McCormick at Sportsnet and Abel To Yzerman, just to name a few.

Anyway, it's been pretty fun and just a few days into the season, NHLToL's team is #1 in a league of 11. I mean, that probably won't be the case for very long, but for right now I seem to be doing all right.

So here's a look at my team if you're interested. I have to say that I don't have four Lightning players by accident. It's perhaps a mistake on my part, but the Bolts are my team and I can't help it.

Though to be quite honest, they're the best-performing players I have right now between Vinny Lecavalier and Vinny Prospal. Right now I'm kicking myself for scratching Prospal last night in favor of Eric Staal. You never do that to your own! Staal was a -1 and did nothing last night while Prospal scored twice the Bolts' 5-2 win over Atlanta. See what I'm saying?

Anyway, lesson learned. No more benching Prospal in favor of Staal. I wish I could have a third center because I'd love to snatch Brad Richards away from somebody, but it wouldn't do me any good.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that if you guys are interested, I'll update you on the status of the NHLToL team. I'll probably do it even if you aren't interested though. And if it comes to it, I might even request your opinions if I have a difficult decision to make. After all, I'm not thinking of at as my team so much as the NHLToL team. My feeble way of trying to make it mean something to you guys as readers.

Anyway, as far as my players go, I'm considering dumping Steve Sullivan this week. Chances are he won't be back on the ice until at least December and even then it's a question mark. However, I saw Dan Boyle on the Lightning broadcast last night and I'd be interested in nabbing him in case he comes back sooner than expected. Regardless, I still have two IR spots to fill, so what's the harm?

My goalies have been all right. Chris Mason shut out the Avs in his first game of the season. I benched Marty Turco last night and good thing too since Mike Smith played for Dallas. Unfortunately, Cristobal Huet lost a 4-3 overtime decision to the Leafs but I'll live.

So let me know what you guys think. If you don't leave any comments, I'll take that as a hint. Just thought I'd at least mention it, though.